Kundalini Yoga

So, after being on a yoga hiatus since Sparks started up again, I decided to suck it up and buy some yoga classes (it also helped that there was a sweet Groupon deal on at the time). Normally, I believe that I do hatha yoga, which is what most people think of when they think of yoga. Well, with my new fancy pass, I could go to ANY and ALL yoga classes I wanted (up to 10 classes). I heard about kundalini yoga and thought that I might as well give it a try . . . just because I can. Also, it started later than the hatha yoga, so I had a chance to have a snack after work. Priorities.

I got my brand new pass all set up and was quite surprised to see how many people were coming into the lobby for a 7:30 pm class on a Friday night. Oh yeah, this was all after I couldn't find the studio because it's hidden inside the lobby of some sort of office building. One of the employees showed me around and then asked if I had ever tried kundalini yoga before. When I said that I hadn't, she told me that it would be a lot of fun and there would even be a dance party! Um, what?

So, the other class finally let out and we could go into the huge studio. It had a water cooler with fancy reverse osmosis water (whatever that means) and there were so many yoga mats. We probably all could have had 2 to 3 if we really wanted. It was also pretty dark in the studio, partially because it now gets dark at practically 5:30 pm and partially because the room was mostly being lit by candles. Everyone got settled and ALL the lights went off. We were literally going to do this by candlelight.

Here's the highlights of how it went down:

- There was chanting

- You talked every single time you did a movement (I guess this helps to control your breathing?)

- It hurt a lot because there was a focus on muscle endurance (as in "let's not put our arms down for 5 minutes straight" or "let's repeat this a hundred million times without stopping")

- I had a lot of shaky positions

- There actually was a dance party

- There was singing

- It was maybe kind of "cult-y"

- I was sweating buckets . . . salty buckets
- I smiled a lot, it was pretty fun!

Here are the conclusions:

- This is NOT traditional yoga

- This is a legitimately challenging workout

- I need to wear shorts next time

- I should probably pop some sort of salt tablet next time

- With all the singing and dancing, it's kind of like Sparks

- There's a 95% chance that I will be unable to move when I wake up tomorrow

- I feel terribly sorry for anyone at the Shopper's Drug Mart that had to come within a 6-foot radius of me when I stopped on the way home to get a Gatorade (in other news, I think it's super cool that not only is the Shopper's Drug Mart open 24 hours, but the pharmacy counter is too!)

- You will need immediate access to a washing machine when you get home afterwards

- This is NOT traditional yoga

There is also a distinct possibly that I took my Gatorade into the shower because I couldn't decide what I needed more when I got home. If this did happen, it would have been quite convenient because the Gatorade had one of those nozzle things, so no water could get in.

For good measure, I'm putting in a picture of some cool leaves that I found walking home from work. Maybe my brother can identify them for me.

A Halloween Weekend

Since Halloween is on a Thursday this year, there was plenty of Halloween fun to be had this weekend, the last one before November! On Friday night, the boyfriend and I went out to a party. It was a good thing our costumes were a hit because we were both pretty exhausted from the work week and probably not that exciting to be around! Can you guess what we were?

A co-worker had told me about the Ghost Train in Stanley Park that runs every year around Halloween. Since I love trains (and hadn't ridden this one yet), it seemed like a good idea to check it out. We thought we would go for the afternoon ride (mostly because I'm a chicken), but when we got there, we decided to go for the full experience and do the ride in the dark. Since we had some time to kill, we started the walk around the Stanley Park seawall. We made it all the way out to Siwash Rock before turning around. I was super worried about missing our train!

I have to say, the people of Vancouver can be kind if gory. There was a memorial plaque at Siwash Rock that gave a fairly detailed account of how a young man died diving off of it a number of years ago. This isn't the first time I've seen something like that either. When I was out in Lynn Canyon with my parents,  there were multiple memorials for people who had drowned, dove into rocks, fallen of waterfalls and been crushed by falling boulders . . . all in fairly descriptive detail. That's one way to remember someone.

Walking around the park was a lot like being home too. The trees were all changing colour (unlike the evergreens that are very common around here . . . they really are always green) and some of the leaves were bigger than my head! We also saw ducks that would dive and swim underwater (faster than I can!) and some sort of bird that I dubbed the "penguin bird" because of their black and white colour. They would all dive underwater together and then pop back up (mostly in the same place because they were obviously not as hydrodynamic as the ducks).

Finally, it was time to head for the train. Although I'm sure I was way more scared than I needed to be, it didn't help that the boyfriend kept grabbing me and making noises to try and freak me out. It was super dark and creepy being in the woods on a train! My favourite part was definitely the little boarded up house with little skeletons having a party/barbecue/picnic/something outside. They even had little bony sandwiches! I'm pretty sure the boyfriend was way less scared, but I think he did enjoy some of the clever references.

It was a pretty fun and active weekend! I'm excited that I get to wear my costume a few more times too, once for our Sparks Halloween party on Wednesday and once to (hopefully) hand out candy to some trick-or-treaters on Thursday!

Arch-Nemesis

To give you an idea of kind of what my week has been like, this afternoon I came home from work to see a gentleman in a kilt walking up my front steps. Yeah, weird.

Back to the beginning though! This week I developed an irrational fear . . . of crows.

Tuesday morning. I was walking down my street, headed for the bus stop. All of the sudden something blows by my head. A crow. I was kind of freaked out, but I just figured it was a one-time thing. It was kind of dark and rainy, maybe it didn't see me. I didn't even mention it in Tuesday's post because I wasn't really worried. Wednesday morning. Walking to the bus stop again and in the EXACT same spot, a crow swoops down behind me . . . but this time, it's wing actually hits me in the head! Now I'm really freaking out. So much so that I actually suggest to my brother that he might want to come out here and visit and bring one of his hunting guns with him. At this point I started to develop a theory that the crow liked my hair and wanted to use it for a nest. I was seriously giving it the benefit of the doubt that it just figured my hair was some sort of natural nest material. Thursday morning. It was raining pretty good today, so I had my hood up and my umbrella out. I didn't see the crow. Friday morning. Thinking I had solved the problem with my hood on Thursday, I approached the tree to see the crow glaring down at me. Taking defensive measures, I put my hood up and figured I would be in the clear. Nope. I was wrong. I walk by the tree and suddenly the crow flies into my lower back, bounces off my elbow and keeps going. I pretty much lost it at this point. I ran down the end of the street and vowed not to walk on that side again.

Then, after I calmed down, I became a little more level-headed. Try doing a Google search for crows attacking people. It's an actual thing. Apparently, in the Northwest (where I am living now) from May to mid-June is fledge season, when all of the baby crows are learning to fly. The crow parents get super protective during this time to protect the babies and will actually attack people. Ahhhh! I took a picture of the crow's lookout and camp from the other side of the street . . . where I will be walking from now until mid-June!

Now for a couple of random observations:

1) It's really weird that there isn't any bagged milk out here. You have to buy it in jugs and then unlike pretty much every other type of container, you can't even return the jugs for a deposit. You just have put giant 4L jugs into the recycling. I can return an orange juice container, but not a milk jug? Weird.

2) There is very little President's Choice out here, but an insane amount of Safeways. Also, this weird brand called Western Family.

3) The automated voice on the SkyTrain that announces stations seems to actually sound relieved when we get to the final stop, YVR. Obviously I can't do inflection and tone on here, but it's really weird!

4) Two days this week I have seen a girl at the SkyTrain station where I get off the bus with a canoe paddle. She's all dressed up in business clothes, but randomly carrying this paddle.

Now just before I tell you about the gentleman in the kilt, I wanted to share my purchases from the little stores that I stopped at on the way home tonight. It's going to be a tasty dinner! I bought an in-store made chicken Kiev breast, then went to the market next store and picked up some corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, a pepper and some feta cheese.

So, the man in the kilt. I saw him walk down my front steps as I was taking a picture of the crow's tree, figuring I just saw wrong and he was actually coming from somewhere else. Then, we ended up crossing the street at the same time and he headed right back up the stairs to my place and around the side. I caught a glimpse of the back of his t-shirt as he rounded the corner. Apparently, the company the cleans the windows of my building is Men in Kilts Window Cleaning. Excellent.

And on that note, I'll leave you with some pictures I took of the sky and the ground. I love the leaves drawn right into the sidewalk! And remember, I am doing the Great Strides Walk next weekend and I am still collecting donations!